Regional powers signal objection to US reclaiming Afghanistan’s Bagram base

October 8, 2025 Current News Articles

Al Jazeera

In a joint statement on Tuesday, members of the Moscow Format of Consultations on Afghanistan – which includes rivals India and Pakistan – “reaffirmed their unwavering support for the establishment of Afghanistan as an independent, united and peaceful state”. The forum also includes Russia, China, Iran and Central Asian nations, all of whom strongly oppose any US return presence in Afghanistan.

The members “called unacceptable the attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighbouring states, since this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability”.

Though the statement echoes last year’s forum language, it suggests broad regional opposition to Trump’s push to return to Bagram, which he handed over to Afghanistan’s Taliban five years ago as part of a deal paving the way for the US withdrawal from Kabul.

In backing the statement, India – a longtime US partner – navigates fraying ties with Washington and apparent rapprochement with the Taliban, which it long opposed but has in recent years cultivated ties with.

In the latest diplomatic outreach, India is set to welcome the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi for a historic first visit to New Delhi this week, lasting from October 9-16.

After attending the Moscow forum, Muttaqi emphasised that Afghanistan will not accept any foreign military presence. “Afghanistan is a free and independent country, and throughout history, it has never accepted the military presence of foreigners,” he said. “Our decision and policy will remain the same to keep Afghanistan free and independent.”

Last month, Trump threatened “bad things” would happen to Afghanistan if it did not give back Bagram, and cited what he called its strategic location near China. The Taliban has rejected Trump’s calls to return the base.

Bagram is about 800km (about 500 miles) from the Chinese border, and about 2,400km (about 1,500 miles) from the nearest Chinese missile factory in Xinjiang.

Trump has referred to China as a key reason for wanting to retake control of Bagram, saying last month in London that the base is “an hour away from where [China] makes its nuclear weapons”.

Current and former US officials have cast doubt on Trump’s goal, saying that reoccupying Bagram might end up looking like a reinvasion, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as the deployment of advanced air defences.

“The sheer logistics of negotiating redeployment and handing back would be extremely challenging and lengthy, and it’s not clear that this would serve either side’s strategic interests,” said Ashley Jackson, co-director at the Geneva-headquartered Centre on Armed Groups.

Bagram, a sprawling complex, was the main base for US forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington by al-Qaeda.

Thousands of people were imprisoned at the site for years without charge or trial by US forces during its so-called “war on terror”, and many of them were abused or tortured.

The Taliban retook the facility in 2021 following the US withdrawal, which Trump first set in motion in his first term as president, and the collapse of the Afghan government with Joe Biden in the White House.

Social media content restricted in Afghanistan, Taliban sources confirm

October 8, 2025 Current News Articles

Hafizullah Maroof and Doug Faulkner

Restrictions have been placed on content on some social media platforms in Afghanistan, Taliban government sources told BBC Afghan.

Filters have been applied to restrict certain types of content on sites including Facebook, Instagram and X, the sources at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said.

It is not clear exactly what sort of posts are subject to filtering. Some social media users in Kabul told the BBC that videos on their Facebook accounts are no longer viewable, while access to Instagram has also been restricted.

These restrictions on social media content come a week after internet and telecommunications services were cut off across the country for two days.

The 48-hour blackout disrupted businesses and flights, limited access to emergency services and raised fears about further isolating women and girls whose rights have been severely eroded since the hardline Islamist group swept back to power in 2021.

Social media users in Afghanistan have been complaining about limited access to different platforms in various provinces since Tuesday.

A Taliban government source said: “Some sort of controls have been applied to restrict certain types of content on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X.

“We hope this time there wouldn’t be any full ban on internet.

“The filtering is almost applied for the whole county and most provinces are covered now.”

There is no formal explanation from Taliban government officials for the restrictions.

Cybersecurity organisation NetBlocks said “restrictions are now confirmed on multiple providers, the pattern shows an intentional restriction”. Social sites have been intermittently accessible on smartphones, according to news agency AFP.

A man who works in a government office in eastern Nangarhar province told the BBC he could open Facebook but could not see pictures or play videos.

He said the “internet is very slow as a whole”.

Another user in southern Kandahar province, who runs a private business, said his fibre optic internet had been cut off since Tuesday but mobile phone data was working, with Facebook and Instagram being “severely slow”.

The Taliban government has not given an explanation for the total shutdown last week. However, last month, a spokesperson for the Taliban governor in the northern province of Balkh said internet access was being blocked “for the prevention of vices”.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Afghan women have told the BBC that the internet was a lifeline to the outside world since the Taliban banned girls over the age of 12 from receiving an education.

Women’s job options have also been severely restricted and in September, books written by women were removed from universities.

Russia hosts Taliban delegation and warns against foreign military presence in Afghanistan

October 8, 2025 Current News Articles

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

Associated Press

October 7, 2025

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia hosted a delegation of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government Tuesday and issued a strong warning against a foreign military presence in the country.

Speaking at the start of an international meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the Taliban government for efforts to combat the Islamic State and other extremist groups, as well as eradicate illegal drugs.

Lavrov emphasized that “the deployment of military infrastructure of any third countries on the territory of Afghanistan, as well as on the territories of neighboring states, is categorically unacceptable under any pretext.”

Last month, the Afghan government rejected a bid by U.S. President Donald Trump to retake Bagram Air Base, four years after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country left the sprawling military facility in the Taliban’s hands.

“The military presence of any extra-regional players could only lead to destabilization and new conflicts,” Lavrov said. “The history of Afghanistan has seen a lot of situations with foreign military presence. I believe everyone should have drawn the right conclusions long time ago.”

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 after the pullback of U.S. and NATO forces, they have sought international recognition while also enforcing their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

In July, Russia became the first country to recognize the Taliban’s government after removing the group from its list of outlawed organizations.

At Tuesday’s talks, Lavrov said Russia was looking forward to expanding business ties with Afghanistan and boosting anti-terrorism and anti-narcotics cooperation. He assailed the West for conducting “hostile” policies toward Kabul, maintaining a freeze on its assets and other sanctions.

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi praised “the bold move of the Russian Federation to officially recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

“I appreciate it and wish that all countries follow the same path,” he said.

Muttaqi said the Moscow talks offer “a good opportunity for the countries of the region to listen to each other’s views,” noting his government has created an opportunity “to ensure comprehensive security after four decades and provide a good ground for investment, economy, transit and connectivity.”

Officials from China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also took part in Tuesday’s talks.

While Russia was the first country to recognize the Taliban administration, the group had engaged in high-level talks with many nations and established some diplomatic ties with countries including China and the United Arab Emirates.

Still, the Taliban government has been relatively isolated on the world stage, largely over its restrictions on women.

Although the Taliban initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, it enforced restrictions on women and girls soon after the 2021 takeover. Women are barred from most jobs and public places, including parks, baths and gyms, while girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.

After finding refuge in Australia, a trailblazing judge fears the Taliban will take revenge on her family

October 6, 2025 Current News Articles

Adeshola Ore

The Taliban commander, armed with a machine gun, hopped out of a tan Ford ranger the US troops had left behind. Flanked by fighters, he knocked on the door of the female judge who had put him behind bars.

It was 17 August 2021 – two days after the Taliban captured Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul following the withdrawal of US and allied troops. The Taliban’s subsequent mass release of prisoners unleashed criminals who were seeking revenge. Female judges – staunch advocates for women’s rights and justice – faced deadly reprisals.

A phone call from a neighbour alerted Pakiza Nawim’s husband that the commander she had sentenced for the rape of a 13-year-old boy three years earlier was at their front door. Luckily, the family had already fled, knowing the inevitable collapse of Afghanistan left Nawim exposed because of her work.

But four years later, Nawim and her colleagues fear the Taliban could seek retribution against their family members in Afghanistan and those at risk of deportation in neighbouring countries.

Their family members are among more than 160,000 Afghans in the queue for Australia’s offshore humanitarian visas. Nawim’s 13 relatives are in Iran illegally after fleeing the Taliban’s control of their home country 2023. They fear being deported to Afghanistan.

“I was the reason for this situation for my family. I feel guilty,” Nawim says, through her husband, who is translating.

Appointed a primary court judge in 2018, Nawim presided over criminal cases in Afghanistan’s Maidan Wardak province, about 35km from Kabul. She was the youngest judge in the province.

That year, she sentenced the commander who later came searching for her to 14 years behind bars for raping a child. He issued her a warning in the courtroom: “I will take revenge on you and your family.”

When a suicide bomber attacked the court district where Nawim worked in 2019, her government-appointed security guards fled. Her family members were the only people she could trust after this, she says, so she appointed her brothers as her security guards.

Nawim says her two brothers, who are in Iran, would be killed by the Taliban for helping a female judge if they returned to Afghanistan. Her 70-year-old mother, who has severe back pain, fears she would be deported by Iranian authorities if she sought medical treatment at a hospital.

“Sometimes during the night, I’m not able to go to sleep. I have anxiety and stress because my mother cannot have medical essentials,” Nawim says. “I’m thinking about my family a lot.”

“I was not alone in this journey … to bring justice on that province. My family was also fighting with me.”

In her final year working in the court, Nawim opted to wear the full burqa to conceal her identity when she travelled to court. Despite the threats, she remained steadfast in her convictions.

“I wanted to change the perspective of the people that the ladies are not able to do anything. I tried to make changes in the community,” she says. “I tried to put a legacy for the next generation that ladies are powerful and they are able to change the society.”

The 19 judges who resettled in Australia were granted temporary protection visas, which converted into permanent residency. But the pathway to Australia for thousands of other Afghans is complicated and lengthy.

In 2022, Australia allocated 26,500 dedicated visa places for Afghans to migrate to Australia under the offshore humanitarian visa program through to mid-2026. But demand soars beyond this.

Since the Taliban captured Kabul in August 2021, more than 251,000 Afghans have applied for visas in this program; about 20,000 have been granted. The latest statistics show that Afghan nationals accounted for 59% of all offshore humanitarian visa applicants in the 2023-24 financial year.

Australia’s suspension of operations in its embassy in Iran in June, due to a deteriorating security situation amid the 12-day Iran-Israel war, has also complicated the process of issuing exit permits for those granted a visa.

Iran and Pakistan have forced Afghans without valid visas to return to their home country or face deportation in recent years amid a hardening stance on refugees. The UN estimates that this year more than 2.1 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan, including 352,000 from Pakistan and 1.5 million from Iran.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said despite the ongoing closure of Australia’s embassy in Iran, it has continued to process humanitarian visas for applicants in the country.

“The department is aware the current situation in Iran may impact humanitarian visa holders waiting to depart,” the spokesperson said. “Resettlement of Afghans continues to be a key priority of Australia’s offshore humanitarian program.”

Nawim now lives in Melbourne with her husband, three sons and in-laws. Sitting in the family’s suburban house, her eyes well with tears as she remembers the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

“It was like waking from a dream that that was full of colour. When the Taliban came, we wake in a black and white world,” she says.

Nawim says she hopes to one day study law in Australia. But her mind remains focused on ensuring her family’s safe passage from the Middle East.

“I’m thinking a lot about my family members. If I feel that my family is safe, then definitely I can continue my education,” she says.

“I am still that Pakiza that can fight for education, fight for the justice.”

Muttaqi Leaves for Russia to Attend Moscow Format Meeting

October 6, 2025 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

6 Oct 2025

This is the first time he is participating as an official member of the format, and he will discuss the expansion of Afghanistan’s relations with regional countries.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has traveled to Russia to attend the “Moscow Format” meeting.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this is the first time he is participating as an official member of the format, and he will discuss the expansion of Afghanistan’s relations with regional countries.

Zia Ahmad Takal, head of public relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “The country’s foreign minister is participating for the first time as an official member in the Moscow Format meeting. He is expected to present Afghanistan’s perspective and position among the member countries regarding the expansion of Afghanistan’s relations with the region.”

The “Moscow Format” meeting will be held tomorrow, October 7, and is considered one of the most significant regional and international gatherings, focusing on economic, security, and diplomatic cooperation among regional countries.

Ghaws Janbaz, a former Afghan diplomat in Russia, said: “If economic and trade issues are discussed more in this format and similar meetings, it can help improve and develop Afghanistan’s infrastructure.”

According to political analysts, the participation of the Islamic Emirate’s representative in this meeting can be seen as a sign of the regional countries’ willingness to establish constructive dialogue with the current Afghan government.

Abdul Naser Shafiq, a political analyst, said: “Regional and global countries jointly want to cooperate to address Afghanistan’s current crisis, especially at a time when the Islamic Emirate has not yet been officially recognized by the international community.”

Ahmad Khan Andar, another political analyst, also emphasized: “The participation of representatives of the Islamic Emirate in meetings concerning Afghanistan’s situation is an important political and diplomatic step.”

The Moscow Format is a diplomatic initiative by Russia that has been held since 2017. The seventh round of this meeting, hosted by Russia, will take place at the level of special representatives and senior officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and nine other countries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously announced that on the sidelines of this meeting, Amir Khan Muttaqi would meet with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, to discuss bilateral cooperation.

UN rights body orders probe into human rights in Afghanistan, with a focus on women and girls

October 6, 2025 Current News Articles

Associated Press

October 6, 2025

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights body agreed Monday to set up an ongoing probe of human rights violations in Afghanistan under the Taliban, including against women and girls, in a measure pushed for by the European Union.

With no opposition and only China opting out of the consensus, the Human Rights Council agreed to set up an “ongoing, independent investigative mechanism” to monitor rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power over four years ago.

The resolution aims to prepare case files that could be used by international justice, such as at the International Criminal Court, and build on work by the special investigator that the 47-member-country council has already created, among other things.

That investigator — special rapporteur Richard Bennett — last month said the Taliban have “weaponized” the legal and judicial system to oppress women and girls in what amounts to “crimes against humanity.”

Among the steps taken, the Taliban suspended laws that protected the rights of women and girls including one that had criminalized 22 forms of violence against women, including rape and forced marriage.

The Taliban dismissed all judges under the previous U.S.-backed government, including 270 women, replacing them with men who lack legal training and hand down decisions based on edicts issued by the Taliban, Bennett said.

Wang Nian, a Chinese envoy in Geneva focusing on human rights, said Afghanistan has recently “taken various measures for stability, economic growth and improvement of people’s livelihoods. The overall security situation has remained stable.”

“These positive developments merit recognition from the international community,” said Wang, adding that the proposed resolution, “failed to acknowledge the positive progress” and “lacks balance” as he explained China’s break with consensus.

Afghans awaited U.S. resettlement. Pakistan sent them back to the Taliban.

October 6, 2025 Current News Articles

By Rick Noack

The Washington Post

6 Oct 2025

More than 1 million Afghans have been pressured to leave or deported by Pakistan. Many were former U.S. contractors approved for U.S. resettlement, now on hold under Trump.

For Mursal, the nightmares began in late January.

That’s when the 28-year-old Afghan woman learned that President Donald Trump, in one of his first acts back in office, had suspended all refugee arrivals to the United States.

The former economics student’s father had worked for U.S.-funded media projects during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. After the Taliban toppled the U.S.-backed government in Kabul in 2021, the Biden administration promised them safe haven in America.

They sold their belongings, moved to Pakistan and awaited what they and tens of thousands of refugees believed to be imminent resettlement in the U.S. Now she feared she would be deported back to Afghanistan under the Taliban’s repressive rule.

The nightmare came true in July. With their U.S. resettlement cases still pending, Mursal and her family joined the more than 1 million Afghans pressured to leave or be forcibly deported by Pakistani officials in the past 2½ years, the U.N. estimates.

Now, they’re hiding in Afghanistan not only from the Taliban, which have imposed increasingly harsh restrictions on Afghan women, but also from family and friends.

“Everyone knows we worked with the U.S.,” Mursal told The Washington Post via a secure messaging app. “We fear what will happen if someone informs the Taliban’s intelligence unit.” Like other Afghans in this report, she spoke on the condition her full name be withheld out of concern for her safety.

When Pakistan began deporting Afghans en masse in fall 2023, the Biden administration gave letters of protection to Mursal and others who were waiting for U.S. resettlement. For almost two years, Pakistani authorities largely complied with U.S. requests to shield those who had supported the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan or were otherwise eligible for resettlement.

But that has changed in recent months. Pakistani officials appear to no longer believe the U.S. is serious about resettling the Afghans who have been left behind, according to interviews with seven Afghans who have recently been deported from the country.“Trump has created this chaos,” said Taimor, a 36-year-old former contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He fled Afghanistan, he said, after the Taliban detained and tortured him for his work in 2022. He was deported back to the country in July.

The Pakistani Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A senior Foreign Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, acknowledged “missteps at the operational level by law enforcement.”

But he disputed that Afghans awaiting resettlement in the U.S. have been deported in large numbers. “Individuals who were mistakenly deported have later been facilitated to return,” he said.

The White House did not comment and the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

“We’re not hearing a lot from government anymore,” said Shawn VanDiver, the Navy veteran who leads AfghanEvac, which helps Afghans flee the country. “They just frankly don’t seem

Taliban officials say returnees have nothing to fear. They cite a general amnesty for all members of the U.S.-backed Afghan administration the regime declared in August 2021.

But the U.N. warned in July that some are still subjected to “serious human rights violations” including “torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security.” Women, former employees of the previous government, media workers and members of civil society are at particularly high risk, the U.N. said.

Some refugees say Trump has appeared more eager in recent months to regain control of Afghanistan’s Bagram air base than with their plight.

“If the U.S. is serious about wanting to return to Bagram, the Taliban will take it out on us,” Taimor said. “They take this very seriously.”

‘There is no mercy’

Many recent deportees could have applied to resettle in Europe or elsewhere. But several told The Post they wanted to go to the U.S., and trusted the government would keep its word.

The Biden administration resettled about 200,000 Afghans after the fall of Kabul. Around 20,000 cases were still being processed when Trump suspended resettlements, according to Pakistani officials. Thousands, having depleted their savings, are stuck.

“In all these years, we haven’t received a penny from the U.S.,” said a 34-year old civil rights activist. He had just been told his resettlement was imminent when Trump suspended the program, he said, but has since been deported to Afghanistan.

Many of the refugees are paying for their own accommodations in Pakistan. Some have been flushed out of their hideouts in recent months as Pakistani officials threaten to fine landlords found to be hosting migrants with expired visas.

The civil rights activist’s landlord brought police to evict him in April. He showed the officers the protection letter confirming that his U.S. resettlement case was being processed, he said, but “they tore it apart and threw it into my face.”

“But in July,” he said, “they came back, arrested us, and this time they didn’t listen.”

Only one of the seven deportees interviewed by The Post has been able to return to Pakistan, and only on a short-term visa. (He needed help from relatives to buy the expensive document.)

Two refugees interviewed by The Post said they were beaten by Pakistani officers. “There is no mercy,” said Frotan, a 33-year-old former Afghan Air Force captain. He was detained, he said, alongside a former judge. Both fell under categories particularly vulnerable to Taliban retribution, according to the U.N.

When he arrived at a deportation camp, he said, police demanded a $600 bribe to release him. Unable to pay, he said, he was locked in an overcrowded prison cell, together with elderly people, babies, and a woman who said she had no relatives left in Afghanistan.

“They laughed and played an Afghan song, telling her to enjoy it,” he said.

Mursal’s mother was separated from the family, she said, and detained in one of the camps.

“She’s still traumatized,” she said. “Our family is going through a very difficult time.”

Returnees fear being recognized

As Mursal and her sister crossed the Pakistani border into Afghanistan, they held each other’s hands tightly. Her sister had wanted to become a midwife; Mursal

“They wanted to know: Why are you alone?” Mursal recalled. “Thankfully, our father was waiting on the other side of the border.” Traveling without a male relative would have violated the regime’s restrictions on women’s movement.

Others feared immediate arrest for their U.S. ties. “I was shaking,” Taimor said. But the Taliban, which have seen more than 2 million Afghans return this year from Iran and Pakistan, appeared too overwhelmed to search phones or to question most returnees, he said.

For many, the greater fear is being recognized by former neighbors in tight-knit communities where not only the Taliban but local elders keep close watch.

None of the deportees who spoke to The Post felt safe returning to their old neighborhoods. Almost all said they were relying on close relatives for housing and financial support.

To avoid being recognized, Taimor said, “we only go outside during the night.”

Many fear it’s only a matter of time until the Taliban finds them. Matiullah, a 34-year-old former Afghan air force pilot, has so far avoided deportation from Pakistan but has had several close calls with police.

“When the Taliban took Kabul, they had no information,” he said. But the regime’s apparatus has become more professional in the four years since, “and now they know my name, my position, everything.”

When Formoly was deported to Afghanistan last month, he sent urgent messages to his U.S. contacts pleading for help.

“All I’ve received are automated replies, thanking me for my emails,” he said.

Iran may release hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees into Iraq and Turkey

October 4, 2025 Current News Articles

Patrick Wintour

Iran is considering releasing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees across its western borders with Iraq and Turkey. It would be part of what officials describe as a necessarily more offensive and unpredictable strategy in the wake of the bombing of its nuclear sites and the European reimposition of UN sanctions.

The multi-pronged offensive includes expansion of its missile programme, strengthening air defences, suspending cooperation with the UN weapons inspectorate and on 18 October blocking the establishment of a UN committee to oversee the administration of the reimposed sanctions. Officials remain opposed to reopening talks with the US, believing the talks would fail.

The threat to send refugees towards the west as well as the east has echoes of the warning issued by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who threatened to send millions of Syrian refugees towards Europe.

Iran has at times had to accommodate as many as 6 million Afghan refugees, but Amnesty International reports that in 2025 a million Afghan refugees have been sent back to Afghanistan, having fled either due to poverty or Taliban rule. Amnesty claimed the mass expulsions had been scaled up in the wake of Israel’s 12 June attacks on Iran’s leadership and nuclear sites. It estimates 500,000 Afghans have been sent back over the border since June.

Until March 2025, several million Afghans had been permitted to temporarily legalise their stay in Iran by obtaining a “headcount” document. Those granted this document could access limited services, including access to state healthcare, public education, work authorisation, banking and ability to enter into rental agreements. But the authorities nullified these headcount documents.

The Iranian authorities have given different figures about the number of Afghan refugees in the country, but it is thought a minimum of 2 million are in Iran illegally. The UN high commissioner for refugees has predicted that up to 4 million Afghans may be sent back to Afghanistan this year.

A broader programme of repair and recovery is under way in Iran, including a discussion about the levers it retains to protect itself in the wake of the Israeli-US attacks in June. Iran has recalled its ambassadors from France, Germany and the UK for consultations at the foreign ministry in Tehran about the crisis. Officials are leaning against leaving the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, partly since the substantive steps have already been taken to end co-operation with the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate.

Iranian officials confirm that in discussions with the French at the UN general assembly Iran offered to allow weapons inspectors to visit one bombed nuclear site at Natanz and also offered to report on its stockpile of highly enriched uranium within 45 days. In return Iran wanted the threat of the return of UN sanctions to be lifted permanently, rather than for three months, the original French-led offer.

Iran claims the US refused to engage with these proposals, part of what Tehran believes has become an increasingly erratic and unprofessional US diplomatic operation run by Steve Witkoff, a man that the Iranians regard as either outside the loop or duplicitous. Witkoff, for instance, was sending the Iranian delegation heading to the UN details of a meeting he was intending to hold with Iran’s diplomats, but he then scrapped the meeting altogether.

In the next probable diplomatic clash with the US, it is expected that on 18 October Russia, which holds the rotating presidency of the security council, will use its power as a permanent member to block the establishment of a UN committee to monitor and oversee the sanctions the EU reimposed last week.

Russia and China have already written to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to say European countries did not have the right to snap the sanctions back as they did on 28 September, since Europe in their view was no longer a participant in the nuclear deal, and had not exhausted the dispute resolution mechanism.

The impasse makes it likely that some countries will not comply with the enforcement of the UN sanctions. Japan, Canada and Turkey have already started to reimpose the sanctions, but countries in the Russian and Chinese orbit will not do so. The Turkish president, Erdoğan, for instance, issued a presidential decree ordering asset freezes on Iranian individuals and entities linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme and major state banks.

Officials say the most damaging sanctions on Iran are the existing ones imposed by the US, and by comparison the restored UN sanctions dating back from 2006-10 are relatively narrow, since they do not cover Iran’s oil programme but instead specific asset freezes, arms limits and bans on missile trade.

But Tehran accepts that even the partial return of UN sanctions is having an impact on economic confidence and on the exchange rate. The price of the dollar in Iran’s free market has set a new record.

U.S. Officials Deny Rumors of Returning to Bagram Airbase, Say No Troops in Afghanistan

October 4, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

October 4, 2025

Two senior U.S. officials dismissed rumors of American troops returning to Afghanistan, confirming that the United States has no military presence or plans to reoccupy Bagram airbase.

Two senior U.S. officials have categorically dismissed claims that American troops have returned to Afghanistan or regained control of the Bagram airbase, calling the rumors “entirely baseless.”

A Pentagon source confirmed that “no U.S. troops are in Afghanistan,” while a diplomatic official in Washington said there are no plans or negotiations to re-establish a military presence in the country.

The clarification follows days of widespread speculation on social media and local outlets suggesting that the Taliban had asked residents near the Bagram airbase, north of Kabul, to evacuate the area. The rumors spread rapidly amid an internet blackout and disrupted communication networks across Afghanistan.

The renewed speculation intensified after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed his administration might negotiate with the Taliban to “reclaim” the Bagram base, which he described as strategically vital for countering China’s influence and combating ISIS. Trump warned that “serious consequences” would follow if the Taliban refused to hand over the base.

In response, the Taliban’s military leadership firmly rejected the reports, stating that they will not hand over the Bagram airbase to the United States or any foreign power. Taliban officials also dismissed claims of prisoner transfers or troop withdrawals from Bagram as fabricated.

Despite official denials from both Washington and Kabul, speculation persisted online that the Taliban and the U.S. had reached a secret understanding regarding control of the airbase. Some political activists suggested a possible arrangement through intermediaries such as Qatar, the UAE, or Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Policy magazine recently noted that a negotiated U.S. return to Bagram “cannot be ruled out,” current political and security conditions make such a move highly improbable.

For now, both U.S. and Taliban officials insist that no American military personnel are in Afghanistan — and that Bagram, once the centerpiece of U.S. operations, remains firmly under Taliban control.

Recognition of the Islamic Emirate Tops Agenda of Muttaqi’s Visit to India

October 4, 2025 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

4 Oct 2025

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

Associated Press

‘There is no mercy’

Returnees fear being recognized

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